Wasting Away: (De)Composing Trash in the Contemporary Brazilian Documentary

This essay examines the metaphor of garbage in contemporary Brazilian documentary to problematize issues of race, class, and gender, focusing, especially, on Marcos Prado’s feature-length “Estamira” (116 mins., 2004).  Utilizing the postmodern decomposition of antropofagia ( coprofagia ), theorized by Brazilian poet and cultural critic Glauco Mattoso, as well as considerations of recent feminist thought, this essay will examine how the motif of lixo in recent Brazilian film serves to critique contemporary Brazilian social and economic policies by revealing a society that dis - covers itself—and, ironically, its own value and values—through the garbage it produces.